Black Clipping On Apple Watch Sport

[dantay]

Hi guys,

Wondered if anyone else has noticed black clipping on their apple watch?

I had to get my first one replaced as the taptic stopped working, upon setting this one up and setting the Mickey Mouse face I noticed that instead of a gradual fade out on the background "flash" behind Mickey my replacement has a sharply defined circle, its also very noticeable on the light glow around the solar phase face too.

I've had bck clipping on samsung old phone screens before and this looks the same, the first sport I had was a week 14 and the screen had no such issues.

I looked on line at pics of watches showing the Mickey watch face and the fade out behind him is gradual not sharply cut off.

The pics don't show it to the sam extent as you can see it with the naked eye but its there.

The colours are also far more saturated and less realistic than the first watch and don't look the same as my iPhone 6, the first watch looked nearly identical.

I'm sure there is now more than one display supplier and this may be the reason.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Cheers

 

[Newtons Apple]

I have had two Apple watches and both screens looked the same to me. I like the O-LED screen for the watch, I think Apple will do the same on their phones one day. They use less power from what I understand.

I do not see what the OP is indicating in the above images. I do not care that the colors are a little more saturated, it is just a little 1" square watch screen.

 

[dantay]

I have had two Apple watches and both screens looked the same to me. I like the O-LED screen for the watch, I think Apple will do the same on their phones one day. They use less power from what I understand.

I do not see what the OP is indicating in the above images. I do not care that the colors are a little more saturated, it is just a little 1" square watch screen.

This is how the solar face should look, the haze around the glow diffuses gradually, mine cuts off sharply, thats an issue with the grey scale or black clipping, compare it to the sharply defined circle on the image above.

 

[Recognition]

I don't think you can compare a photo of the solar face on your watch to a screen shot of the solar face on another screen.
I just checked mine and the gradient is much smoother on the screenshot than on the watch.

 

[Aluminum213]

I have had two Apple watches and both screens looked the same to me. I like the O-LED screen for the watch, I think Apple will do the same on their phones one day. They use less power from what I understand.

I do not see what the OP is indicating in the above images. I do not care that the colors are a little more saturated, it is just a little 1" square watch screen.

OLED is far superior to the LCD screen on iPhone and iPad

 

[starbot]

Have we reached a new level of anal here?

 

[Newtons Apple]

This is how the solar face should look, the haze around the glow diffuses gradually, mine cuts off sharply, thats an issue with the grey scale or black clipping, compare it to the sharply defined circle on the image above. View attachment 561850

A MUCH better example. It is just the way the O-LED screen handles this types of things. Like I said, it hardly matters on my watch screen to me but I know it will bother the hell out of some. I got better thing to worry about.

 

[kirkhuffy]

My watch looks like ops and not the screenshot of the solar face.

 

[Honey Badger]

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Ok, I see what you mean. The watch face does have a slight "cut off" compared to the screenshots I just took. I checked my Brightness setting and it's maxed out.

Usually these small tiny things would bug me, but nah. This one doesn't.

 

[JD92]

Hi guys,

Wondered if anyone else has noticed black clipping on their apple watch?

I had to get my first one replaced as the taptic stopped working, upon setting this one up and setting the Mickey Mouse face I noticed that instead of a gradual fade out on the background "flash" behind Mickey my replacement has a sharply defined circle, its also very noticeable on the light glow around the solar phase face too.

I've had bck clipping on samsung old phone screens before and this looks the same, the first sport I had was a week 14 and the screen had no such issues.

I looked on line at pics of watches showing the Mickey watch face and the fade out behind him is gradual not sharply cut off.

The pics don't show it to the sam extent as you can see it with the naked eye but its there.

The colours are also far more saturated and less realistic than the first watch and don't look the same as my iPhone 6, the first watch looked nearly identical.

I'm sure there is now more than one display supplier and this may be the reason.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Cheers View attachment 561839 View attachment 561839 View attachment 561841 View attachment 561842

I can see what you're talking about OP. I suspect this will be a situation where it's "in spec", and perhaps something you wouldn't have noticed had you not had that first Apple Watch with an apparently better screen.

It might be worth going into the Apple Store to compare your watch with the display watches. I imagine comparing your current watch to your old one from memory might not be perfectly reliable. If you do go in to compare it let us know what you find!

 

[QquegChristian]

I would absolutely compare it in an Apple Store where you could show an employee to ask for an exchange if the difference is as obvious as you remember. Also make sure the brightness is set the same on both watches.

I work in photography and cinematography so I absolutely know what clipping is. Hard to tell from your photos though obviously.

I had this exact same issue with the iPhone 5 when it first came out. My wife and I both got one and I noticed her icons looked more saturated than mine. I put the same photograph as the background on both phones and set the brightness to the same level... Her phone was almost a perfect match to my calibrated studio monitor (slightly cooler white point though, which is typical for Apple). My phone was FAR cooler, far less saturated, and the whites AND blacks were both heavily clipped. There was a cream, textured wall in the photo perfectly visible and detailed on my wife's phone and nothing but pure white on mine. I got a replacement and it was a perfect match to my wife's phone.

 

[Gjwilly]

Any chance it's a change that came about with SW 1.01?

 

[Newtons Apple]

OLED is far superior to the LCD screen on iPhone and iPad

Everyone has their own opinion. All depends on how you like you screen to look as they look entirely different to me. A great display is in the eyes of the one looking at it.

 

[dantay]

Thanks for the replies guys, I've sent it back and will wait until in store purchase is available in the uk so I can check in person prior to purchase.

All I can say is that it was immediately obvious to me on the Mickey Mouse face and as I've seen issue on oled screens in the past I knew it was clipping.

In my opinion its a calibration issue not an issue with oled as a type of screen tech, any screen can suffer with black crush if poorly set up.

 

[mcdj]

I see it on my watch too, but I also know that visual memory can be deceiving.

You sent the first watch back, and your memory of it was that it did not clip, but as a photographer and photo retoucher by trade, I can guarantee you there's a chance it looked identical to your current watch and you're just remembering it incorrectly.

More importantly, even if the 2nd watch was calibrated incorrectly, and that caused the clipping, it doesn't mean the next watch you get won't have the same or a worse/different calibration.

If it were me, I'd get to an Apple Store to verify they don't all clip. I suspect they may.

 

[dantay]

I see it on my watch too, but I also know that visual memory can be deceiving.

You sent the first watch back, and your memory of it was that it did not clip, but as a photographer and photo retoucher by trade, I can guarantee you there's a chance it looked identical to your current watch and you're just remembering it incorrectly.

More importantly, even if the 2nd watch was calibrated incorrectly, and that caused the clipping, it doesn't mean the next watch you get won't have the same or a worse/different calibration.

If it were me, I'd get to an Apple Store to verify they don't all clip. I suspect they may.

I'm certain the first watch was not like this, I noticed it on the second watch immediately, also the colour on the second unit was over saturated again leading to the conclusion it was not calibrated as well as the first unit, thanks for your input though.

 

[mcdj]

So what are you going to do if the next one has the same clipping?

I would swap mine but if the next one has the same issue, I'd just keep it because the only way to find a good one is to keep opening them, which Apple won't keep letting you do. Not to mention that the only way to see it is to get the screen to show a gradation, which means a lengthy pairing process every time.

 

[dantay]

So what are you going to do if the next one has the same clipping?

I would swap mine but if the next one has the same issue, I'd just keep it because the only way to find a good one is to keep opening them, which Apple won't keep letting you do. Not to mention that the only way to see it is to get the screen to show a gradation, which means a lengthy pairing process every time.

I went through a lot of iMacs years ago until I got one I was happy with so i'm quite happy to go through a few units to get one that doesn't exhibit this issue.

Thanks again for your concern.

 

[Aluminum213]

Everyone has their own opinion. All depends on how you like you screen to look as they look entirely different to me. A great display is in the eyes of the one looking at it.

Objectively speaking, the black levels on OLED blow away LCD, that's a fact

 

[Newtons Apple]

Objectively speaking, the black levels on OLED blow away LCD, that's a fact

The problem with the OLED screens is they tend to clip the blacks so that there is nothing in between. This is where a good good TFT screen is much better. It is just the nature of these OLED screens. I like them, too!

 

[mcdj]

Well I just compared my SS 42mm to a coworker's Sport 42mm and the difference in screens in the Solar face was night and day. Color wise, I actually prefer mine, which is a tad punchier, but in terms of black clipping, his had none and mine is quite obviously clipped. The attached Photoshop mockup pretty much shows what the clipping looks like. Obviously this isn't specific to the Sport model.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Well I just compared my SS 42mm to a coworker's Sport 42mm and the difference in screens in the Solar face was night and day. Color wise, I actually prefer mine, which is a tad punchier, but in terms of black clipping, his had none and mine is quite obviously clipped. The attached Photoshop mockup pretty much shows what the clipping looks like. Obviously this isn't specific to the Sport model.

Wow, that really shows quite a difference!

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Mine is clipped

 

[danmart]

Is this something user adjustable, or can it only be rectified by Apple?